Ruminations and ponderings by the Last of the Montgomery Rebels Fans on the Montgomery Biscuits and Montgomery Alabama area baseball history.

Friday, April 22, 2016

Biscuits Dozens, What to Look For v Suns, Schedule & History Notes

The Biscuits got the best of the Smokies, taking the series with three victories and two losses in the first installment of the Grape Jelly Series.

The Skitz wins were healthy for the team, a pair of ninth inning comebacks boosts confidence for Montgomery players and fans alike.

The last game of the set was a doozy, with something for everyone.
Starting pitcher Chris Kirsch went six strong innings to get his second win.

Shortstop JuneQ hit a three run bomb and drove in four runs.

Granden Goetzman was just a homer shy of the cycle and reliever Steve Ascher picked up an old fashioned three inning save.

Thats the kind of get-away day that makes the bus ride home a little easier!

GOOD MINDSET

All of the Biscuits pitchers have exemplified a "bend but don't break" philosophy.

While a couple of starting pitchers have been tagged with losses and relievers have given up runs that cost the team late leads, it doesn't always seal the outcome.

Don't sleep on Big Mo or he will sneak up on ya!

Over on the hitting side, Biscuit hitters are starting to wake up. As the weather warms up, so do the Montgomery bats. Jake Bauers has hit homers in back to back games, meaning pitchers in the league should beware.

BISCUITS IN DOZENS
Johnny Field is third in the league in RBI's and has been making great contact with the bat. He has 12 runs batted in.

Biscuits leadoff man Willy Adames leads the league in Run Scored. His next run scored will be his 12th.

Casey Gillaspie is second in the league in bases on balls. Yep, twelve.

BISCUITS V SUNNS

The Biscuits come home to face the Marlins affilate Jacksonville Suns.

The Biscuits are just two games out of first place at 8-6, the Suns start the series 4.5 game back at 7w-8L.

This is the only time Montgomery will host the Suns this season, unless the two teams meet in the playoffs.

GAME ONE

Ryne Stanek

Princess Night
C.W. Hu vs Jake Esch

GAME TWOScout Night/Autograph Day
Jacob Faria vs Jarlin Garcia

GAME THREE
2pm Kids Day
Taylor Guerrieri vs Austin Brice

GAME FOUR
Ryne Stanek vs Ryan Newell

GAME FIVE
SkoolDay Game
Chris Kirsch vs Tim Berry

WHAT TO LOOK FOR

The Biscuits and Suns are a bit of a strange matchup - both Florida's MLB teams rely heavily on their minor league talent and ranked prospects aren't the only quality players on the roster.

Hank Aaron integrated the Southern League w/Suns 1953

The Suns historically play tough games against Montgomery, so this could be a hard series to predict.

Look for Biscuits baserunners. The Suns pitchers are second in the league in giving up hits.

Look for Jacksonville to score runs in bunches. The Suns are second in the league in runs scored. They have five wins in games that they scored five times or more.

Look for Biscuits home runs. The JSuns have given up the most long balls in the league. Montgomery has hit 11 homers in 14 games, second most in the league.

Look for the hometown hitters to play wall-ball for two bases, Montgomery leads the league in doubles.

While Biscuits hitters are batting just a collective .227, they don't swing and miss - only one club has fewer strikeouts. Look for the Biscuits team batting average to climb over the next series.

This team is well constructed and has good talent. It is not as loaded with names as some of the other clubs in the league but they offset that with great organizational depth. Pitching is one of the strengths of this club.

JOSE JOSE
How can you not love a guy named Jose Jose. I gotta get him to sign a baseball before he takes off in the recording industry, if not as a baseball player.

SCHEDULE NOTE

The rainout at Jackson TN has indeed been added to the Montgomery schedule as a doubleheader at Riverwalk on May 28th.

This will be just the second time that Montgomery has hosted a game with the Biscuits listed as the Visiting team.

THIS DAY IN MONTGOMERY BASEBALL HISTORY

APRIL 22 1839 A.T. "Aleck" Pearsall is born, later to play for 1860 Brooklyn Excelsiors, possibly in Florence Alabama. He would be Alabama's first baseball player. He would be expelled from the Excelsiors for joining the Confederate army as a surgeon.

I researched the strange trek of the man who brought baseball to Montgomery for a post in 2014. He was perhaps the first man banned from baseball, ousted not for gambling or drinking but for performing life-saving surgery under the wrong flag. In fact, he was doctoring Federal casualties who took their surgeons name back to New York.

Pearsall arrived in Montgomery in 1863 and by the spring of 1867 we had our first team. Please feel free to check out the post The Ex Excelsior, Founding Father of Montgomery Baseball from a couple years back. There may not be a more important figure in Montgomery baseball history.

APRIL 22 1893 "Iron Man" Joe McGinnity wins his second Montgomery start, beating Nashville again. This time the score is 7-4.